NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
Dimbleby Moraboutcha sits on the same bench overlooking the river, off Wicket Street, where I found him last May.
“Good morning Dimble.”
He looks up at me standing next to the bench and offers me a swig from his large silver flask.
“No thanks Dimble, I don’t drink until after dark.”
“Why not, are you afraid of something?”
“I need to keep consumption down.”
“Haven’t seen you for months?”
“I am here in Fauxmont. What about you?”
“What are you up to these days?”
“I have been all over my life, over and over.”
“Dwelling in the past, huh?”
“Dawdling, I would say. Dawdling with intent!”
“Not a crime.”
“No, my intention is to write. Right out of memory and on to my keyboard.”
He offers his flask again.
“Have a swig, Fred.”
“No thanks, Dimble.”
“I’ll have to go home for a refill before dark, you know.”
“That’s okay. I can hold out.
Rank Majors appears from behind the thicket to our right.
“You can take a leek down there, Dimble, plenty of cover.”
“Yeah, okay, my plumbing is fine.”
“Fred, how are you?”
“Not in need of the thicket, Rank, but more than a little worried.”
“You’re retired, aren’t you?”
“Thankfully, yes.”
“Well, the Jackdaws aren’t coming after you.”
“Not yet at least.”
“Aren’t you concerned Rank?”
“No! We can shed two-thirds of the government and only be better off.”
Dimble takes another swig from his flask and looks through the humid afternoon air to the opposite bank of the river.
“I think I would rather be over there, so speak, than where I am now.”
Rank steps toward the opposite end of the bench from Dimble and sits down.
“Dimble you’re a lush!”
“Writers often are!”
“If you say so.”
“Churchill, that old imperialist, said that he got more out of alcohol than alcohol got out of him.”
“What do you see over there, Dimble?”
“Yeah, what indeed, Fred! Hermione’s return perhaps? There’s a lot of crows flying over there.”
He points to a flock of crows flying over the water.
“Here Fred, try this. It’s good rum.”
“No thanks. Those crows are circling back!”
“I’ll take a swig.”
“Okay Rank but make it short. I need that to last until dinner time.”
He hands Rank the flask who pauses before putting it to his mouth.
“What time do you eat dinner?”
“Whenever I feel like it.”
“So, it is no fixed time.”
“It’s fixed by my appetite.”
“Okay, your biological clock huh?”
“You might say that. I would say eat when you feel like it.”
“What are you cooking tonight?”
“I don’t cook. I use the phone. It keeps the gas bill down and the risk of fire is reduced.”
“Carryout, you mean.”
“Well, I don’t carry much, though I do carry on in my own way.”
“Yeah Dimble, that’s a fact.”
Dimble continues to stare across the river and starts mumbling to himself.
A helicopter flies over drowning out all other sounds.
“What’s that Dimble?”
“Fred, I was just thinking crows and jackdaws are both members of the corvid family.”
“You think those crows are telling us something?”
“At first I thought they preferred the other side!”
“Yeah, I was expecting the mist to burn off by now”
Dimble mumbles again refreshing himself from his flask
“Dimble we can’t hear you!”
“Yeah, I am talking through the mist, to myself.”
“Are you in agreement with yourself?”
“That seldom occurs.”
“Do you use social media?
“Fred, you might as well whisper to a thunderstorm.”
Rank adjusts his red “Macadamia 25” baseball cap, with white letters and a blue peak.
“You should take notice, That’s people’s power!”
“Relatively few people make most of the noise!”
“I guess you don’t go there?”
“No!”
“Do you, Fred?”
I look at “Back Stairs” for local stuff.”
Dimble belches.
“Macadamia blames the other side for doing what he is already doing.”
“Such as?”
“Weaponization! Rank”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning using the lawsuits to extort money.”
“What is Mac to do, after having an election stolen from him?”
“One thing he could do is, Shut Up!”
Dimble raises his flask to his lips again.
Rank stands up and takes a few slow steps looking at the ground and then looks up at Dimble.
“Dimble, Mac’s job is to keep that story alive.”
“Why?”
“It keeps supporters energized to fight socialism.”
“By socialism, you mean the government, by government you mean the executive bureaucracy.”
“By government, I mean a monster that gives away the taxpayer’s money!”
“The president is part of the government too!”
“Right, too many of them have been going along, and now look at the cost of the deficit.”
“The deficit is a problem alright.”
“Dimble, I am glad to hear you say that.”
“But I must add, ah, ah.”
“Yes, go on.”
“Lost my train of thought.”
Dimble resorts to a restorative swig.
“Ah, yes, I must add that Mac’s smoke screen isn’t going to fix it.”
“Sometimes it takes a war to wake the country up.”
“Now we have Mac, who’s programmed to attack our nation’s government.”
“Listen, Dimble, a lot of creative patriots are at work.”
“Rank, it is nothing but a clutch of traitorous code, what do they call it? Ah, Ah, Algorithms.”
“Don’t you believe it?”
“I do. Feather Jackdaw is writing his code too, and she is getting help from PU’s computer science department.”
“I’ve heard people say that before.”
“It is a well-known fact.”
“Where did you hear that Dimble?”
“I am a reporter, remember!”
“Yeah, I am asking about your source.”
“Rank, my sources are confidential.”
“Your sources are wrong!”
Dimble tries to stand but sits down again mumbling to himself.”
“What’s that Dimble?”
“It’s all part of the thunderstorm, Rank.”
“There is no storm in the forecasts I have seen.”
“No, Rank, it’s a hail of lies and a downpour of deceptions.”
“Dimble, you need to get with the program.”
“Thankfully no one is coding my utterances.”
“That is not what I meant!”
“Rank, you are drowning.”
“No, I am not. I am standing on dry land like Fred.”
Dimble gestures with his flask in hand. The top falls off, rolling into the weeds.
“That damn thing! Rank, you’re lost in the stream of falsehoods flooding into the vox populi.”
Rank steps over and picks up the top of Dimble’s flask from a patch of chickweed and dead oak leaves.
“Here Dimble, keep this screwed on tight, okay?”
“Thank you Rank, we are all getting screwed at the moment you know.”
Dimble gets up, walks around, and leans on the back of the bench facing Rank.
“Think, ‘Contracts’!”
“Okay, contracts, what about them, Dimble?”
“Feather Jackdaw has huge contracts with Defense and Intelligence.”
“Right, all those satellite launches, for example.”
“Rank, that’s the tip of the ‘dollar-berg’.
“What do you mean “dollar-berg’?
“I mean a lot of money we, the public, don’t see.”
“Yeah, that whole mess needs a big shake-up!”
“I couldn’t agree more Rank. Here, have another dose of my sanity juice.”
Dimble leans over the bench to hand Rank the flask.
“Thanks, Buddy.”
Rank takes a swig and hands it back.
“Fred, here, there is some left.”
“No Dimble, thanks all the same.”
“Well, your sanity quotient is pretty respectable according to my SQ test.”
“When did you administer that?”
Dimble belches and steadies himself on the back of the bench.
“Fred, it is one of the more profound benefits of alcoholic consumption.”
“Dimble I haven’t had a drink yet, today.”
“No, more’s the pity, but I have and enjoy some insulation from my biases on this important matter.”
Rank walks around to help Dimble keep his balance.
“What’s your IQ, Dimble.”
“So low they wouldn’t tell me the number.”
“Okay, so bear in mind, Feather Jackdaw and her team have very high scores, off the charts.”
“Oh, I know, they are good at those tests, yes.”
“So, you might want to consider their superior intelligence. Our country is in good hands!”
“There are many kinds of intelligence that test fails to detect.”
“Well, that is just speculation.”
“That test also fails to detect, arrogance, insensitivity, and hatred, stupidity and meanness. I could go on.”
“Yeah okay, Dimble.”
“Look here, I am running out of juice.”
“Dimble shuffles away from the bench toward the road.
“Wait up Dimble!”
“What’s that Rank?”
“People have good reason for their anger.”
“Dimble mumbles something drowned out by another passing helicopter.”
Rank takes his arm and steadies him.
“I’ll walk you home buddy.”Rank takes his arm and steadies him.
“I’ll walk you home buddy.”